Puca puppets brought to life in unique performance
Riverbank Arts Centre
The award-winning Púca Puppets are coming to the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge on Thursday 14 November with their new show The Holding Bones.
In an artist’s studio, shadows talk, objects come alive and she draws her very bones to overcome loss and celebrate love and the cycle of life.
The Holding Bones lovingly recalls a host of characters — songsters, storytellers and mischief makers. In paying playful homage to her ancestors Niamh Lawlor contemplates the purpose of life. Her life.
Set in her studio she draws upon her skills as a puppet maker and visual artist to enrich the tale she has to tell, as funny as it is deeply moving.
A new original piece from Púca for adults, The Holding Bones is a fitting celebration of Samhain, All Soul’s and The Day of the Dead. At this time of year, they say, the veil between our world and the next is at its thinnest. Once we would have set an extra place at the table, left the door unlocked and lit a candle for each of our loved lost kin at Halloween and remembered our dearly departed throughout the month of November.
In this new show, Lawlor, veteran performer from Púca for nearly 30 years, counts her ancestors on her very bones and brings them back to life on stage. Vital theatrical storytelling invites you to meditate on family, memory and rituals of grieving and how to embrace the bittersweet turns of the cycle of life.
This will be among the opening performances of a very personal yet universal show that has been crafted over several years, assisted by support from The Arts Council, dlr County Council, South Dublin Live a South Dublin County Council Arts Office initiative, Pavilion Studio and the Mermaid Arts Centre, Draíocht and Civic Theatres. The Holding Bones will be performed at Riverbank on Thursday 14 November at 8pm. Tickets are priced €15/€12 and can be booked through the Box Office, either in person or by telephone on 045 448327 Monday to Friday 9.30am-5pm (closed for lunch 2-2.30) and Saturday 10am-1pm. Tickets can also be booked on www.riverbank.ie Online tickets subject to €1.50 booking fee.